This mildly entertaining backstage comedy about the ill-fated debut of an awful play features a talented cast under Bruce Gray’s able direction. But Norm Foster’s screwball story stays afloat on a raft of clichés and pointed winks: A cultural philistine and his long-suffering wife ring in their silver anniversary during Game Seven of the World Series. An oily director manages his buxom ingénue under his girlfriend’s watchful eye, while a starry-eyed waiter banters with a washed-up Shakespearean. Et cetera. The caricatures are meant to make us feel superior to the rubes onstage, but the half-funny jokes grow forced. Despite pitch-perfect performances (Gail Johnston, John Combs and David Hunt Stafford are special standouts), some tender moments and a second act that’s snappier than the first, we can see the character arcs coming from a mile away. For a play whose characters grandly extemporize on the magic of theater, this show could use more of its own.

Jenny Lower for LA Weekly
May 23, 2013